Biodiversity is decreasing at the fastest rate in the history of the earth. The sustainable use of ecosystems allowing maintenance of biological diversity is an urgent problem that must be solved. The work featured in this book presents the results achieved by the RIHN project, together with reports on other international activities and related efforts, as ecologists, forestry scientists, environmental economists, and sociologists share in discussions of the issues.

Biological diversity is important for ecosystem function and services, which in turn is essential for human well-being. Under the Convention on Biological Diversity, international efforts have been made to achieve a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss. The loss continues, however. The Asia-Pacific region includes both developing countries with high biodiversity and developed countries with sophisticated data collection and analyses, but only limited information about the status quo of biodiversity in this region has been available. Many Asia-Pacific countries have rapidly grown their economies and social infrastructures, causing a loss of biodiversity and requiring an urgent mandate to achieve a balance between development and conservation in the region. In December 2009, scientists successfully organized the Asia-Pacific Biodiversity Observation Network in the region, to establish a network for research and monitoring of ecosystems and biodiversity and to build a cooperative framework. The present volume is the first collection of information on biodiversity in the Asia-Pacific and represents a quantum step forward in science that optimizes the synergy between development and biodiversity conservation.

This volume focuses on new trends in monitoring biodiversity in the Asia-Pacific region, one of the most rapidly changing areas in the world. It provides reviews of the challenges in studying the spatial variability of biodiversity across various ecosystems. This book also describes newly developed concepts and methods for biodiversity observation including ubiquitous genotyping, systematic conservation, monitoring of the functions and services of ecosystems and biodiversity informatics. These contributions will lead to establishing integrative observations and assessments of biodiversity, essential for reporting the current status and for the effective conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. This work will interest biodiversity researchers not only in the Asia-Pacific region but also across the entire globe.

The studies in the Ogawa Forest Reserve (OPR) were initiated by a group of plant ecologists and gradually expanded into a comprehensive project covering various aspects of biology, soil science, and silviculture. The project was integrated as part of the Forest Ecosystem Team under the BIO-COSMOS Program funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. As the coordinators of the Forest Ecosystem Team, we are pleased that reports of the long-term studies carried out in the OFR are being published in this first volume on Japanese ecosystems in the Ecological Studies series. Scientists and researchers have made numerous contributions to the field of forest ecology during more than 10 years of studies in the OFR. Two reasons can be cited for the success of the project: scientists from various disciplines concen trated on a single target forest ecosystem, and the research continued over a rela tively long term. It is now recognized that ecological processes include compli cated mechanisms supported by interactions among organisms and large temporal variations. The researchers in the OFR project were motivated by their interest in the history of ecosystems and the interactions of diverse creatures in the forest.

Biological diversity is important for ecosystem function and services, which in turn is essential for human well-being. Under the Convention on Biological Diversity, international efforts have been made to achieve a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss. The loss continues, however. The Asia-Pacific region includes both developing countries with high biodiversity and developed countries with sophisticated data collection and analyses, but only limited information about the status quo of biodiversity in this region has been available. Many Asia-Pacific countries have rapidly grown their economies and social infrastructures, causing a loss of biodiversity and requiring an urgent mandate to achieve a balance between development and conservation in the region. In December 2009, scientists successfully organized the Asia-Pacific Biodiversity Observation Network in the region, to establish a network for research and monitoring of ecosystems and biodiversity and to build a cooperative framework. The present volume is the first collection of information on biodiversity in the Asia-Pacific and represents a quantum step forward in science that optimizes the synergy between development and biodiversity conservation.

The Ogawa Forest Reserve (OFR) is a species-rich, temperate, deciduous, old-growth forest in central Japan in which the ecology of the tree community has been intensively investigated since 1987. Detailed demographic data on the main tree species, covering the entire tree life cycle, were collected to elucidate the mechanisms by which community structure, organization, and species diversity are maintained. Included here is the work of more than 40 scientists in such diverse fields as botany, ecology, pedology, silviculture, mammal ecology, entomology, and ornithology, who have studied the same forest at the same time. This volume introduces the main areas of research under the OFR project and discusses the implications of the results on environmental issues. Integrated studies of this type are essential to clarify how species diversity is maintained, currently a central focus in ecology.